UNIVERSITIES AND THE STARTUP OF NEW COMPANIES: CAN WE GENERALIZE FROM ROUTE 128 AND SILICON VALLEY?

In order to increase the commercialization of basic research, policy makers have tried to foster closer ties between university research and industry R&D. To empirically test whether there is a link between commercialization and university research, this paper models firm startups during 1976-78 for six 2-digit manufacturing industries located in 25 metropolitan areas The findings are mixed the relationship between university research and firm births in the electrical and electronic equipment industries (SIC 36) is positive and statistically significant, while in the instruments and related industries (SIC 38) the relationship is statistically insignificant